First off, let me say that it pains me to give kudos to Amazon, as the company is a continual pain in the collective ass of all small businesses that are forced to follow Minimum Advertising Pricing (MAP) rules, as manufacturers are generally unwilling to go to the mat with Amazon but will gladly bite the hand that feeds them and cut off any small business that doesn’t play by their MAP rules. That rant is for another time however, as today I want to talk about a lovely little story about a guy, his dog and the website that makes them both happy.

This isn’t just good. It is ridiculously awesome. What makes this ad so good? It has a single clear message with visuals and a tone that drives an emotional response. This is what so many companies strive for, but even those with the best intentions don’t get the results they’re looking for.

What makes this especially impressive is that Amazon is a company that sells everything. the focus of the message is clear. The goal is to create a message that focuses on how well Prime delivers on availability, accessibility and service. That is exactly what is happening with this ad.

The ad sends a very clear message that if there’s something you need, it is just a click away from your phone and that with Prime, you’ll be getting it fast. The fact that the setting looks real, the main actor looks like someone you’d actually encounter in a park and that the dog is both expressive and adorable is pure icing.

I’ll rail on this company all day for their borderline business practices, the way that they reportedly treat their employees and their slow destruction of small businesses in both the retail and wholesale space, but I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this ad.

Oh look. Cottonelle is trying to be “edgy” and show how “hip” and “cool” their brand is:

As print ads go, this is among the more disgusting ones I’ve seen in quite some time. Apparently the purpose of this ad is to tell us that we can now wear white pants and not worry about shit stains when we go commando, since Cottonelle does such a bang up job keeping our collective poopers clean.

I’m not a prude. Really, I’m not. I just have no interest in going commando, nor do I have any interest in knowing who goes commando amongst the people I associate and work with. I know, I know. It’s “in” to go commando. I know that toilet paper is among the more challenging things to market since a) it is a commodity and b) it is used to clean up human waste. Even so, the thought of someone walking around with poo stains on their pants because they didn’t wipe well enough is beyond vile. The fact that Cottonelle wants to be known as the brand that helps protect your white pants from skidmarks makes me think that they might want to have a talk with Trisect, the agency that conceptualized this campaign.